How the musician explained the situation on his verified Twitter account.

By Forum Staff

“I made a mistake,” is the explanation offered by a 63-year-old Corona, Queens, man who lifted a $3,000 Luis Vuitton bag belonging to Grammy and Academy Award winning singer songwriter John Legend at JFK on Thursday.

Legend returned to New York on March 23 from a trip to France and as he was leaving Terminal 4, his luggage cart was briefly unattended and a black leather Louis Vuitton bag, containing a pair of Cartier panther head cufflinks with clear and green stones valued at $25,000, articles of clothing and personal items, was stolen from the cart.

Authorities identified the defendant as Agustin Hilario, 63, of 101 Street in Corona and have charged him with grand larceny and other crimes for swiping the bag.

“The defendant is known to airport personnel and was quickly identified through surveillance camera footage by Port Authority Police, who then contacted the defendant about the missing bag, said DA Brown. “The defendant allegedly admitted to taking the designer bag, claiming it had been left unattended. The defendant is now facing serious charges.”

According to the charges, when someone went to retrieve Legend’s bag, it was gone. Security footage allegedly showed Hilario approaching the cart and pushing it away from the area before removing the Louis Vuitton bag and leaving the scene. Hilario was identified by a Port Authority police officer who recognized Hilario from the security camera images and contacted him. The defendant allegedly stated, “I know I should not have taken it.. I made a mistake” He is beleived to have also said that he’d planned to take the bag to the airport’s lost and found. The defendant did return the bag and its contents to Port Authority Police, who reunited Legend with his belongings.

The defendant was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on a complaint charging him with third-degree grand larceny, third-degree criminal possession of stolen property and third-degree attempted grand larceny. Hilario faces up to seven years in prison.